Five Characters We Want Included In Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls

By Elijah Gonzalez | August 6, 2025 | 3:30pm

Video Games Lists Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls

Five Characters We Want Included In Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls seems to be approaching at the speed of Quicksilver. After being announced just two months ago, eight characters have already been revealed. On top of this, it’s already been in the hands of the public, getting its first non-press preview opportunities at Evo this weekend. It will reach even more folks when its closed beta releases on PlayStation 5 next month.

Needless to say, Tokon comes with heightened expectations as the first Marvel fighting game since the Marvel vs. Capcom series went dormant, especially since Arc System Works (Guilty Gear, Dragon Ball FighterZ, BlazBlue) is at the helm. With that in mind, fighting game heads and comic enthusiasts alike have their eyes trained on a particular area: which superheroes and villains will be playable characters?

A roster can make (Marvel Vs. Capcom 2) or break (Marvel Vs. Capcom Infinite) titles in the genre, and Arc System Works will have to introduce a range of characters with varied playstyles, while also ensuring that many of the usual suspects are present: it feels fair to assume that popular mutants like Wolverine and Magneto will be here among others, alongside long-time fighting game inclusions like Hulk, Hawkeye, and Venom.

In anticipation of the game’s roster becoming revealed in the coming months, we’ve prepared a list of five characters we’d love to see included. Our criteria were the following: they have to have never appeared in a fighting game before (besides the mobile game Marvel Contest of Champions which has like 300+ playable characters including deep cuts like Joe Fix It), they need to have abilities distinct from the announced fighters, and they can’t all be X-Men characters, because without that restriction, they would probably all be X-Men characters.

We’re also forgoing a few obvious picks that will hopefully be in the game, but would have fairly straightforward movesets or have overlap with the picks below, like Black Panther, Gamora, Hela, Moon Knight, Blade, and more. With all those stipulations, let’s get into five characters we hope to see in Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls when it comes out next year.

Nightcrawler

Despite the impressive number of X-Men featured in the Marvel Vs. Capcom series and their own dedicated fighting games like X-Men: Children of the Atom, Nightcrawler has surprisingly never appeared in one of these as a playable character. With his superpowered agility, adhesive hands and feet, and, most importantly, his ability to teleport, it’s easy to imagine him as a tricky mix-up or rush-down character who could blink around the map to establish tricky-to-block crossups. His run speed and air dash would likely be quite fast, and he could potentially use his adhesive limbs to stick to walls and set up varied aerial approaches. To compensate for mobility, he would potentially have lower damage, less health, and a lack of projectiles. And while he traditionally uses swords to fight, these might need to be nixed as well because he might have too much range otherwise for an aggro character. Admittedly, I’m including him on this list because I’d personally find him very fun to play, but who doesn’t love a teleport in a fighting game? Well, besides the player on defense, that is.

Gwenpool and Jeff the Land Shark

Despite only being around for about a decade, Gwenpool has quickly become a fan favorite, a riff on Deadpool that manages to be even more meta than her inspiration. For those unaware, she has the ability to manipulate the fourth wall while also utilizing a more traditional arsenal of katanas, guns, rocket launchers, and more. She’s also the adoptive mom of Jeff the Land Shark, who is also quite popular, probably because he’s a cute little guy.

As for how Gwenpool would play in Tokon, she could draw inspiration from Guilty Gear’s Faust by using special moves that cause her to pull out a random ranged weapon at will, resulting in an improvisational game plan. She could also make use of Jeff for more consistent zoning or even setplay, commanding him to sprint across the screen for a chomp, or fire liquid projectiles to lock foes down. Jeff could be gated behind a resource mechanic where he has to go eat snacks in between uses. And much like Deadpool in Marvel Vs. Capcom, she could similarly engage in some fourth-wall-breaking hijinks, not only referencing the fact she’s in a video game, but also alluding to Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 by copying Deadpool’s ability to bludgeon foes with the health bar. Whatever her toolset, it would most likely be for players who enjoy randomized chaos and adorable baby Land Sharks.

Groot

While Groot is one of those characters who has quickly risen to name-brand recognition thanks to the MCU, his relatively recent ascension means that he hasn’t been included in a fighting game yet. And considering that Marvel Tokon doesn’t have a big body grapple or a dedicated zoner announced at the moment, he could be designed to take up either of these roles. If he was as a grappler, he could use his giant tree limbs to perform command grabs with impressive range, maybe including one that stuns an opponent, Makoto style, in a thistle of vines to set up a combo. If he was instead designed as a zoner, he could spread his roots into the ground to attack enemies from below at certain set distances, or fire spore projectiles. Either way, he would be a slow, high defense character with limited mobility options, potentially one who lacked an air dash altogether.

Hit Monkey

Coming off his animated series, more people are aware of this murderous Japanese maque than ever. With dual pistols and an assassin’s training, this primate would likely be a rushdown character that utilizes speed and ranged attacks to lock opponents down. Their pistols could be a low-damage option to keep enemies in hit or block stun, their grenades could be used to pressure foes on wakeup, and they could have a multi-hit rekka series where they slash with a sword. Perhaps they would also have some attacks like Akuma’s Demon Flip or Cammy’s Hooligan Combination, where they spin through the air before performing one of several attacks. To compensate for these strengths, they’d have stubby normal attacks, low health, and relatively low damage. He could also have an ammo mechanic like Happy Chaos in Guilty Gear Strive, requiring him to reload his weapons.

Devil Dinosaur and Moon Girl

I’ll admit that a major reason I put Devil Dinosaur on the list is because I think it would be very funny to have a giant T. rex as a playable character in this video game. But looking at this pick a bit more seriously, the fighting game genre has a long history with massive characters, from Samurai Shodown’s grotesque Yokai Kusaregedo to Akatsuki EN-Eins’ Blitztank (who was previously featured in Blazblue Crosstag Battle, another Arc Sys game). These screen-filling fighters change the nature of a fight, usually coming with humongous attacks and impressive defense at the cost of horrible mobility and being vulnerable to specific offensive setups due to their immense size. Devil Dino would have these strengths and weaknesses, using his tail and teeth to deal impressive damage from across the screen. Meanwhile, Moon Girl would be riding on Dino’s back, controlling his attacks with her mind. Be free, Arc System Works; put a big ‘ol dinosaur in your fighting game.

Elijah Gonzalez is an associate editor for Endless Mode. In addition to playing the latest, he also loves anime, movies, and dreaming of the day he finally gets through all the Like a Dragon games. You can follow him on Bluesky @elijahgonzalez.bsky.social.